Первый выход в открытый космос мог закончиться трагедией для Алексея Леонова. Вот что пошло не так

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On March 18, 1965, the Soviet spacecraft Voshkod-2 launched from its sinful in Baikonur, in up to date-day Kazakhstan. On board were two cosmonauts,Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyayev, who had the crucial mission of accomplishing mankind’s first spacewalk. It used to be thegolden ageof space exploration for the usa, and the cosmonauts’ mission had plenty using on it: past the obtrusive scientific and non-public stakes, the doable geopolitical consequences were immense.

Within the aftermath of World Warfare II, the U.S. and the usa faced off in a brand fresh battle, the Chilly Warfare. Origin within the gradual 1950s, space grew to change into one other dramatic enviornment for this economic and political competitors. The Soviets proved dominant at the onset. On Oct. 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missilelaunched Sputnik(Russian for “traveler”), the sphere’s first synthetic satellite and the important thing man-made object to be positioned into the Earth’s orbit. In 1959, the Soviet space program took one other step forward with the open of Luna 2, the important thing space probe to hit the moon. In April 1961,the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagaringrew to change into the important thing person to orbit Earth, traveling within the pill-like spacecraft Vostok 1. In step with these Soviet space victories, from 1961 to 1964, NASA’s worth range used to beincreased almost 500%, and the American lunar-touchdown program within the rupture involved some 34,000 NASA workers and 375,000 workers or industrial and university contractors.

It used to be the tail stay of this Soviet dominance that produced in all likelihood one among its biggest accomplishments, Leonov’s spacewalk. But that success would possibly perchance possibly comprise without ache change into a bother.

Once in space, Leonov’s associate Belyayev opened the outer airlock on their spacecraft and Leonov floated free for 12 minutes on a tether that used to be a miniature bit over 16 feet long. Leonov’s actual mission used to be moderately straightforward in conception. He used to be to construct a digicam to the airlock and picture his spacewalk with a tranquil digicam that used to be strapped to his chest. On the opposite hand, he encountered considerations from the open.

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His chest-mounted digicam would possibly perchance possibly possibly now not be historical because his spacesuit inflated past recognition, making it most unlikely to access or manipulate the digicam.In step with historians Rex Corridor and David Shayler, Leonov’s core body temperature jumped 35° in below a half of an hour, pushing his body to the fringe of heatstroke. In later interviews, Leonov described his situation internal of the suit as sloshing in sweat. Attributable to the vacuum of space,his spacesuit had now not finest expanded and stiffened, it used to be now too monumental for reentry through the 3.9-foot-extensive airlock. Cognizant of eavesdropping on their transmissions, Leonov chose to now not picture the discipline to ground declare watch over but to handle it on his own.

He hoped that by slowly opening a valve within the suit to open oxygen, it would possibly possibly perchance possibly depressurize his suit except it used to be skinny ample to squeeze through the hatch and support into the spacecraft. He used to be finest. On the opposite hand, as Leonov himselflater recalled, that conception posed an obtrusive distress: he would possibly perchance possibly possibly simply now not comprise ample oxygen to breathe. To boot, letting out the air stress attach him at distress of decompression sickness — the bends, a issue deep-sea divers and up to date spacewalkers tranquil predict and notion for.

Irrespective of his returning to the safety of the spacecraft, their considerations had finest begun. The spacecraft went into a hasten resulting from the inflatable airlock being ejected in preparation for re-entry. Their oxygen levels persisted to climb to bad levels internal and a single spark would possibly perchance possibly comprise introduced on a huge explosion and vaporized the total spacecraft.

Belyayev and Leonov tried the entire lot they’d perchance well judge to stabilize the craft, and were within the rupture in a converse to make so. Their re-entry to Earth used to be also rife with considerations. The craft’s automatic re-entry scheme failed to fireplace retro-rockets, which forced them to open a manual touchdown way. They veered wildly off-route earlier than re-stabilizing, but their orbital module failed to change into independent from the touchdown module, which destabilized the craft even extra. They within the rupture reached solid ground — nonetheless, after rising from the craft they realized, cruelly, they were in a thick woodland surrounded by wolves and bears, in a snowstorm. In step withHamish Lindsay, the two men within the rupture reached security after a rescue birthday party reached them on the 2d day.

Irrespective of their success within the face of great odds, the 2d marked the stay of Soviet dominance within the House Scurry. Most arresting two months later, on June 3, 1965, American astronautEdward White finished the important thing U.S. spacewalkin Gemini 4. Three years later, December 1968 seen the open of Apollo 8, the important thing manned space mission to orbit the moon, from NASA’s huge open facility on Merritt Island, shut to Cape Canaveral, Fla. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 — manned by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins — efficiently landed on the moon. Armstrong grew to change into the important thing human to move on the moon’s ground and famously known as the 2d, “one minute step for man, one monumental jump for mankind.” But earlier than humanity would possibly perchance possibly possibly jump, we had to learn to spacewalk first, thanks to Voskhod 2 and Leonov’s brazen mission success.

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